Attorney General Richard Blumenthal says Connecticut liquor laws extend to tribal casinos and is asking the state appellate court to reverse a contradictory lower court ruling.
“Tribal sovereignty must yield to public health and safety laws — particularly liquor laws — intended to save lives,” Blumenthal said in a “friend of the court” filing today. “We must hold tribal casinos to their moral and legal duty to respect these laws. The tribes affirmatively agreed to obey public safety laws — and the U.S. Supreme Court has ordered them to do so.”
Blumenthal filed the brief in support of Emily Vanstaen-Holland and her mother, Susan Holland, who are suing the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority and others in connection with an accident in which Emily Vanstaen-Holland, a pedestrian, was struck by someone allegedly intoxicated after drinking at Mohegan Sun.
Emily, 15 at the time of the accident, suffered life-altering injuries.
The Vanstaen-Holland case is only one of several DUI incidents in recent years involving casino patrons.
Last March, a 23-year old Navy sailor – who later reportedly told police that he had four or five drinks over the course of the evening at a Mohegan Sun club — struck a livery van carrying seven Connecticut College students headed to Boston’s Logan Airport. The students were travelling to Uganda to spend their spring break distributing medical supplies. Student Elizabeth Durante, 20, died at the scene.
Less than one month later, a Lisbon construction worker — who admitted to police that he had been drinking at Mohegan Sun — allegedly caused a crash in Norwich that killed a 59-year-old woman from Willimantic.
